Unbased First Published on 12/09/2015
New parking lot. An Examiner story this week about purchase of land for a new Moorefield High School parking area. I’ve had privilege of reading it before you folks.
I’ve read it several times. Questions keep popping up in my mind. I think everybody knew such was going to happen. In this day when parking areas fill up much faster than buildings they support, parking had to be found for new school somewhere. I’d even thought there might be a deal in the wind when Moorefield Chief of Police, Reckhart stopped publicly bugging Hardy County Board of Education (HCBOE) about horrible parking situation which arrived with new school.
Continued existence of Good Times Lounge said something was going to happen. With its existence “grandfathered in” by prior location before new school was expanded out to it, only option to negate public criticism of coexistence of beer joint and school was to buy the beer joint. With this parking lot purchase, they’ve done that.
Other businesses, both retail and service, will go away too. A small question in my mind which I don’t have sufficient gumption to research, is how much tax money will be lost through replacing these private businesses with a publicly owned parking area.
I realize HCBOE voted to buy the land for education purposes. Story goes on about how Hardy County Rural Development Authority (HCRDA) will facilitate the purchase. Whose name will be on the deed, HCRDA or HCBOE? Sounds like HCBOE has $400,000+ to pay for it. A state mandated slush fund set aside for teacher’s retirement which can be used for parking lots if need be. I have to wonder how many more pots of discretionary money are hidden in HCBOE budget under names such as “Other Post Employment Benefits.”
And if HCBOE is going to pay for it, why doesn’t their attorney make up the deed, parties to that deed exchange money and call it done? Why a facilitator? If HCRDA uses it’s money for the purchase, will HCBOE pay them back? Surely there is nothing being hidden from the public here, is there?
Actually, I trust HCBOE to be open and above board more than HCRDA. HCRDA is guided by appointees who have political “juice” while non partisan HCBOE members are elected by Hardy County voters to take care of public education business. I’d guess HCRDA funding is less restrictive, more flexible than HCBOE monies so that should small extra costs arise, amounts can be more readily adjusted. Perhaps HCRDA can pay for paving the lot thus reducing costs of snow removal and line repainting. At any rate, we have to trust HCBOE to look out for our best interests.
Late October, I think, a HCBOE story describing East Hardy Early Middle School principal, Don Rhodes’ request for computers and a special education teacher. Superintendent of Schools, Barbara Whitecotton informed him money was the problem. “Like it’s outside the formula, we can’t afford it.” I don’t understand. Surely classroom and teacher computers are used for educational purposes, but there’s no money to be found to purchase them. I’m a tiny bit dubious that parking lots rank higher than computers for educational use. To me a parking space is an item of convenience while in modern education, computers are necessities. Perhaps our HCBOE can ask Ms. Whitecotton to dig around in odd budget hidey holes for computer funds too.
My personal bottom line is that new school should never have been built in a proven flood plain behind an untested dike in the first place. Should that dike fail, new parking lot will be a good location to handle damaged and contaminated materials not only from new school but from elementary school as well.
